How Do I Keep My Lower Arms, Hands & Wrists Strong

 As a human being, we are responsible for what types of strength we develop whether it be physical, mental, emotional and/or spiritual. Some don't always get to even choose that responsibility because of either birth defects or other things but if you're compelled and learn to work with what's possible, there are many ways to strengthen yourself.

Strength is not always measured by a cannonball shaped bicep or having washboard abs that look good in a magazine, it really is measured what the body can handle and be able to do things that require sometimes a great deal of effort in order to provide the strength needed in life. The hands for one is probably, arguably one of the most prominent aspects of strength that we don't always understand the true meaning of it. We build things with our hands, we can clip hair like it's electric with such precision and speed, we destroy things, we test a man's grip with a simple shake, we lift and hold onto things as if our lives depended on it. Our hands are the ones that turn the knob to a world of possibilities.

When I was in my teens, I didn't have thick forearms or crazy strong hands and wrists even though I threw the shot put and the discus along with some mediocre weight training. I didn't understand the value of grip strength and hand health until I started learning feats of the old time strongmen. The first people to show me this were Logan Christopher & Tyler Bramlett. They showed me how these small guys like Dennis Rogers & Mighty Atom were able to bend, twist, break and shape steel with such power it looked effortless yet impossible to look at. They were the first men to teach me steel bending short and long along with leverage work and utilizing the flexion and extension of the hands. If these small dudes can teach me how to do things that men twice their size can barely even touch, that gave me the reason to be able to do it too.

For years, I've bent hundreds of spikes, tore through dozens upon dozens of phonebooks, levered sledgehammers and shaped flat bars and rebar till my hands bled (literally) and those were the foundation of making my hands crazy strong, durable and powerful. My fingers would feel like bone, my forearms were hard as stones and my wrists had strength yet were flexible and limber. As time went on in the midst of doing these crazy feats, I started studying more on how to keep the lower arms healthy and as pain-free as possible. When I was learning the unorthodox and strange ways to train using Garin Bader's CoreForce Energy, he also had a course specifically for the hands called Finger Gymnastics. You've all read about my dealings with the meningitis and how it shaped my nerves to the point where dexterity in my right hand is almost impossible with using individual fingers. With FG, it gave me tools that I never was able to learn before as a child and it showed how I can use my hands differently than what I was attempting during therapy sessions. It opened up a new world to me that was unbelievable.

As I got older and shifting away from the strength feats, (is a comeback in the works?) I had put my effort into a more movement based type training and for the last 10 years or so, working with sledgehammers has been my go to for hand strength and conditioning. I also found the Fat Gripz useful as I use them from time to time with my resistance cables to really dig into the muscles and build grip strength at the same time. I've used them also on machines, barbells and dumbbells. Slowly but surely overtime, my hands just kept getting stronger and rarely if ever got injured. 

Because of the sledgehammer work, it has even helped me in arm wrestling; faced all three generations of my wife's family (father, brother and grandfather) as they all challenged me and I won. This family also comes from several generations of loggers and heavy laborers so they have incredible strength in their blood. Neither of them were easy either especially her grandfather who tried to pull my arm off for a second or two but to didn't let up. That was a defining moment where they were like "ok this guy is good for the girl in our lives" in my opinion. Gramps still has that "old man strength."

In a nutshell these days, hammers, fat gripz, occassional fingertip pushups and walking like a gorilla has kept my hands pretty damn strong and healthy. Keeping the wrists limber as much as possible and fingers just keep getting stronger. I have also kept an eye doing joint loosening exercises especially in the hands and wrists for a while now because as we age, we won't always be able to do the crazy shit we did but if we kept our joints healthy, that's what makes living the more important. Be strong, build strong hands and be amazingly awesome. 

Just less than a few days left of the BIG SALE at Lost Empire Herbs where you can get a major discount of 20% all orders using the code FALL2022 at checkout and can get FREE SHIPPING when you order $100 or more worth of bad ass herbs, tinctures and powders. 

More To Exercise Than Just Stationary Movements

When you have a certain amount of knowledge about exercise and fitness along with the understanding of what works and what is useful, you have the ability to train anywhere you want and not be restricted to a building full of people who can be nasty as hell (verbally and physically). Stationary movements are basically exercises where you're in the same spot working on something and not going anywhere else. If it's just bodyweight, you can switch from one exercise to the next in the blink of an eye. 

It's great to do pushups, deadlifts, squats, curls, weights, bodyweight, machines and suspension training; they're all great in their own way and should be used for the goals people want to achieve and/or maintain throughout their lives, however; there's more to training than just staying in one spot. There's freedom in moving from one thing to another but the true freedom is being able to harness the body's capabilities beyond the stationary aspect of fitness.

The majority of fitness is training in a single spot on the floor or only a stupid short amount of space. Now with Animal Movement training or Primal style training, you have the freedom to move wherever you want, however you want. This is where you are truly open to using your imagination and not be confined to a such a short amount of space that you can't crawl, jump forward or backwards, sideways and under a magic carpet ride. It's about letting go of the caged up mentality. Do stationary movements have their place, of course they do, they're another aspect of training. It's not the full picture though.

Animal Exercises are a form of expression. Yes it's true we can't move 100% exactly like wild animals but as a human, we have the creativity to express ourselves in a different format than typical conventional training. We can crawl, jump, kick, punch, roll, lift, carry, hell we're practically a Wonkavator where we can go up, down, sideways, longways, shortways, bend, twist, go east, west, north, south and everything else in between. Indigenous tribes don't necessarily work out in the sense of recreation but when they hunt or go out to find food, they climb, crawl through the jungle, run, walk, utilize their body's abilities to take down trees, carve boats, fish with nothing more than a stick and string. They're expressing their bodies the way nature intended in order to survive. Fitness is just a recreational version of expressing our human nature and Animal Type Movements is to me the pinnacle of that. 

Some will look at Animal Movements as silly and "make believe" and that humans were only meant to stand up right and crawling and all that stuff is meant for babies in development. It is a huge part of our evolution to be upright and to lift, carry and be able to orchestrate movements based on human evolution but mimicking animals to a small degree is part of that as well. We've studied animals for countless millennia even when we didn't realize it and we partake in how we can move utilizing what we can do. Although Animal Movements can be considered a "gimmick" form of exercise, it's the freedom of expression that gets to the heart of it. 

Is it natural to move like an animal in the wild? Well, you are using your own body as resistance and it's not alien like formalities so you tell me. It's just different, that's all it is when you break it down. It's using the mind and body's ability to express a near exaggerated format of what we as humans are capable of doing. Some of the most basic movements can be done by just about anybody if you're in good health. The more advanced stuff is for the "crazy ones" which is a much lower percentage of people capable of doing. Even basic movements are still freedom of expression and be able to showcase your abilities to train in just about any length of space. 

So, when you practice your training, realize there's more to it than just being in a single spot. Utilize both to really become universal in your fitness journey. Your goals are yours and what you do to get better is what you're willing to do whether through Primal Movements or stationary, they're more valuable than we have been led to believe. Be strong, be wild and be amazingly awesome.

Be sure to check out the BIG sale going on at Lost Empire Herbs where you can get a major discount of 20% on all orders. Use the Code FALL2022 at checkout. Want Free Shipping? Snatch up $100 or more worth of products. 

The Twilight Of Fitness Fanatics

In fitness, there's always going to be critics, cynics, "experts" and some downright dumb motherfuckers that will tell you what's the best, what's the worst, how you should do things according to certain statistics and trends are crap and this and that. Where do you go to get the best really? What makes them the actual experts?

Sometimes I wonder if some of these fanatics or at times "extremists" have ever realized they're leading people on the Twilight effect: Are they team Jacob or team Edward (Weights vs. Bodyweight, Rubber Cables vs. Machines, Crossfit vs. Bodybuilding). Where does it end? The truth is, there's only so much someone can tell you before you make a decision for yourself. Will you be the wolf or the vampire for the title of "King of the Monster." 

We follow sometimes the old school ways of doing things and/or we try to keep up with the times and not try to get overwhelmed by the fast pacing world we live in. Some just prefer old school because that's how they grew up and what they knew best. Some of the old school ways weren't that great and sure as hell some of it should not be a part of today's world but there are lessons in them that we can learn in our world today. Keeping up with the times can be a royal pain in the ass and focusing on too many things especially with the crap we see, hear and talk about, it could put us in the nuthouse (if it hasn't already for some).

When it comes to fitness, being objective can be a bitch but we only know what we know and understand by trial and error. However; there are are those out there who only know a certain method but have no clue what other methods are about and yet try to convince people how terrible they are when they themselves never did them. When you start to look at things objectively and seeing both sides of the coin, you'll realize that it's not always Black and White (again Team Jacob or Team Edward) and both sides have their strong and weak points. The fact is, both sides of the coin have strong points you can take and mold them to create a stronger version of yourself. 

Throughout these last 17 years of training every single day, you know that my love is always bodyweight but yet will do things that suit the strong points of different styles to create a variety for myself. I don't preach one specific method and shun everything else, that's not what life's about. My approach is helping others find the best of whatever they want to do and focus on finding the best resources so they can achieve their goals, the same way I do for myself. Constantly finding exciting things to do to get better, changing things up to stay interested and enthusiastic. I'm not a team Jacob or team Edward (I'm more of the Blade, Underworld & Lost Boys variety LOL) yet both have their strong points. 

There is no one way to do things, you move, you lift, you carry, you transition, you build muscle and whatever, they all are part of a path that leads to somewhere. One method will never 100% cut it. If it did, where does that leave anything else for someone? Choose what you love and stick with it but don't be afraid to test out new things and doing so without going to extremes and getting hurt along the way. Be strong, be safe and be amazingly awesome. 

Heads Up: Big Sale going on at Lost Empire Herbs where you can get an awesome 20% Discount on your order. Discount Code at Checkout is FALL2022.

Sprint 8 And Hammers

Being aggressive can be a good thing when you need to just let it out. Now we do need to control our aggression because we don't want to go as far as hurting someone or worse. Being productive in that is finding an outlet that will get shit out of your system safely and with good intentions. You can get into a fight but unless it's a last resort, we don't need to put anybody either the other person or ourselves in the hospital and regret getting that bill. 

Hammer Work is about as old school as you can get and there's a reason why it's one of the manliest things you can do. It builds Testosterone, it strengthens the tendons and ligaments, it's productive training and it freaks out Mormons (that last one was a joke). Let me give you a side story about the Mormon joke:

A while ago during a workout, I was using a deck of cards as my reps. Around the 5th card or so, these Mormon kids (one was in his mid 20's, the other was roughly a late teen) parked their car across the street and proceeded to go about their route to convert and spread the gospel of the Church Of Latter Day Saints (the church is literally right next to the complex). I was the first person they approached and one of them wanted to try out the hammer I was using (Big Barry 25 lbs). He liked it and gave a good critique on it as he did a couple swings (now remember, these guys are in nice shirt and ties with slacks on). I figured, I'd mess with them for a bit and brought out Big Bertha the 73 lb Hammer. The older of the two widened his eyes and said "you've got a bigger hammer than this thing" and I had him try it out. Didn't tell him how much it weighed, could barely even pick it up and couldn't swing it. He asked if I could do it and I did about 6-8 reps without breaking a sweat and he literally shouts out "HOLY CRAP" and the other kid whispered "holy shit" or something like that. Now imagine making two guys who are spreading Mormonism who've learned not to say certain aspects of language in their religion saying two aspects of words that would get them in trouble for saying them yet it took one big ass hammer to make them do that. That was one of the funniest things I've ever seen happen. That hammer freaked them out that much to resort to that.

Back to the article at hand....

Regardless of the rep/set scheme you use, hammers can do wonders for your conditioning and building muscle. Today I wanted to try out the Sprint 8 Protocol which was rep out something for 30 seconds on, 90 seconds off for 8 rounds. It was a pretty damn good workout and got me breathing hard and I can feel it in my forearms. The pump feels awesome. I've tried various styles of exercise with this method of training from animals to burpees to sprinting in place and others but the Hammer version felt great and was well rested and would go hard as I can each set. You get so many benefits out of it than just firing up the lungs, you build strength, grip, speed, conditioning, cardio and other kick ass things. 

The Sprint 8 Program in this day and age is more on the use of machines like treadmills, ellipticals and other things of that sorts and the course promotes mainly on those to help sell machines. Now does this mean the program isn't useful? Of course it is, you don't need a machine to kick your ass with this workout. Hell from what I understand Dr. Laurence Moorhouse created a similar program decades ago and worked for a lot of people. This program is done no more than 3x a week in my opinion but this method has people going up to almost 5x a week and I don't find that practical or safe because depending on the exercises you use and speed regardless of the rest period, you still need to recover from it. You can do other stuff on the off days for sure just not as intense. Recovery is what promotes growth and I'm talking optimal, not to the degree where you bust your ass on this workout than not do a damn thing for a month. 

Using hammers for this method, use a hammer that gives you the right amount of speed that will get you breathing hard, I would say anywhere from 10-30 lbs would be good for most. If you got the strength to use a heavier hammer than the weights I just mentioned and the speed of it is there, use it if you wish but the heavier you go, the slower the movement will be. Be wise and don't hurt yourself.

If you want a solid supplement to help boost testosterone as you follow this program, grab some Pine Pollen, Stag Swag or get a Tincture Bundle to really get things cooking.  

Be strong, get conditioned and be Amazingly Awesome.

Flow Through Your Workouts

Going hardcore in a workout isn't always a bad thing and people just push themselves to the brink of collapse is the boost to their ego; but going hardcore doesn't always mean you should a lot of the time unless it "may be" a micro workout of some sorts. Flowing through a workout where you're challenging yourself but it feels to you almost effortless is one of the coolest things you can do.

These days because of the inspiration from Vahva Fitness, my brain has been fiddling with ideas and coming up with flows and combos, learning the flow routines from Vahva and developing better flexibility and agility with great energy and enthusiasm. It's almost like the excitement never stops and have used specific flows for my flexibility, conditioning and coordination. Taking a few exercises and putting them together to create something fun to do is what is keeping me coming back.

My favorite exercises to use in my flow training are the Over Reach, 180 Degree Jumps and the Scorpion. Utilizing these three with other exercises and you've got a hell of a foundation. I even will use them in a freestyle manner where they randomly go with other exercises in a workout where I come up with exercises on the spot. This routine I do here, would be considered freestyle since I didn't have the exercises in a specific order and was coming up with stuff at the top of my head.

Some workouts I'll just do a couple moves and just switch from one to the other like this demo of the Scorpion & Over Reach Combo to work my flexibility and coordination. One exercise I've learned lately that I'm still figuring out how to do properly is called in Vahva Fitness the King Crab. It's not an impossible move but to coordinate it and move in the manner can challenging since you're up off your heels and walk sideways. I did a video of just Holding The Position in an Isometric format to build strength so when I do more of the movement, I'm use to being in that position. I like to use themes every now and then and this move made me think of a scene in Fantastic Beasts: The Secret Of Dumbledore where the main protagonist has to go through a cave and these "Fire Crabs" are ready to strike him and he has to move like them to distract them. 

 When it comes to conditioning, flows can have a profound impact depending on how you do them. When you use jumping movements or crawls in a sprint like fashion while quickly switching from one thing to another can really fire up the lungs. A workout I did yesterday was a combo of the Scorpion, Over Reach and Bear Crawling. Do the first two moves than do a 5-10 yard crawl and walk back and repeat for as many rounds as possible. I did about 10 and that was enough. When you get out of breath, walk it off until it has subsided and keep going, don't sit down or bend over and heave, breathe deeply and keep things flowing. Vahva also has great workouts that target various muscle groups but also shows you step by step how to do a flow properly and progress by adding speed and smoothness. 

Another great combo that will get you out of breath is just crawling and jumping as in Crawl for a distance, get into a squat and do a 180 degree jump or just a regular frog jump and crawl back. Do that for 30 seconds to a minute and you'll be panting like crazy. You can see the video of that below. Workouts should never be boring and moving from one thing to another fast is a great way to get you going. Bodyweight Training is more than just simple pushups, squats, pullups and lunges; you can create things and open up a whole other door to exercising that is limitless and full of curiosity. 

If you really want the complete package and take on a whole plethora of challenges, flows, athletic specialization and conditioning programs, check out the Trinity Bundle from Vahva and combine them for workout regimens that will test even the most elite athletes. Be strong, get conditioned and be amazingly awesome.